“Now it is a world of studio sets and the precise control of the effects of light and shadow.” Of the remarkable series of films directed by Jean Renoir that[…]
Category: Reviews
Superman Returns II: Superman . . . Bush . . . Perry White . . . Karl Rove . . .
It’s all here, including the “Mission Accomplished” moment Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, which was the number one movie in America on its opening weekend in June 2006, is a listless,[…]
Superman Returns I: Superheroes for the New Millennium
“This new millennium hero lives in a fortress of solitary and alienated hyper-masculinity.” Note: This article contains spoilers. I never thought I would see the day when I would write[…]
No Tobacco Juice, but Funny! Monster House, Rockin’ in 3-D!
Bob Zemeckis and Stephen Spielberg want your money. Give it to them. It’s sad but true: no one does spit tobacco juice on the audience in Monster House. But even[…]
Hating Marie: Why the French Still Don’t Like Her
Bring us the head of Sofia Coppola, ‘k? Of all cinema publics, France holds the reputation for the most cinephiles, for being the home of the invention of the “auteur.”[…]
Artists · Directors · Interviews · Movies · Reviews
Returning to Life: Talking with Almodovar, Penelope Cruz, and Carmen Maura at Cannes
“I do not have the serenity of women. But I admire it.” Pedro Almodovar’s new film Volver (Return) features an unusual number of deaths. Penelope Cruz, in the best performance[…]
Doug McGrath’s Infamous: The Best Truman Capote Movie I’ve Seen All Year!
If you must see only one Truman Capote movie in your life, let it be this one Do I really want to see a movie about Truman Capote leaving Manhattan[…]
The Departed: Crime All the Time
Scorsese gets all Irish on our asses, and it works I admit it. I thought Marty had lost it. I thought he had gone all lazy and cute and Hollywood,[…]
Documentaries · Genres · Movies · Reviews
Cultural Equity: On the Documentary Lomax the Songhunter
“Every smallest branch of the human family at one time or another has carved its dreams out of the rock on which it has lived.” – Alan Lomax It was a remarkable[…]
Attack (1956)
When Jack Palance’s Lieutenant Joe Costa suddenly returns from what seemed a certain death in Robert Aldrich’s Attack (1956) – his left arm hanging lifeless, rendered to ground beef by[…]
Let’s Hear It For Phoenix!
While the rest of the blogosphere is celebrating director Robert Aldrich, I thought I’d put in a word for one of my favorite – and least discussed – Aldrich films,[…]
Shanghai Notes
Orson Welles’ The Lady From Shanghai (1948) is one of the most anti-noir of classic noirs. “Shanghai” in The Lady From Shanghai means the same thing as “Chinatown” in[…]
The Departed: Scorsese gets all Irish on our asses, and it works
I admit it. I thought Marty had lost it. I thought he had gone all lazy and cute and Hollywood, with no fire in the belly. And for the first[…]
Miike’s IMPRINT
Takashi Miike’s Imprint is being advertised on its DVD box cover as “Banned From Cable Broadcast.” Although other episodes (notably, Dario Argento’s Jenifer) were partly censored, of the 13 one-hour[…]
AIMEZ-VOUS BERNAL?
Not since Amélie stuck raspberries on all ten fingers has such whimsy wafted off the screen, though Michel Gondry’s hero in the wistful yet delightfully goofy The Science of[…]
BLUE FLOWERS AND BLACK
A while back, I talked about the re-emergence of Romantic “blue flower” imagery in films like Batman Begins and A Scanner Darkly. Add one more film to the list –[…]
THANK YOU FOR SMIRKING
Hollywoodland is hardly the first film to feature a brace of matinee idols who smirk with all the confidence of the well-paid (consult most buddy movies starting with Butch Cassidy[…]
Quickies: Random Short Reviews from Cycles of Porn to Small Faces
“Turn towards me. I’ll make do with your heart beating next to mine.” Cycles of Porn: Sex/Life in L.A. Part 2 (Jochen Hick, 2005) Fans of the gay porn documentary[…]
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